Finished: December 21, 2024
Why I read this
If you want to get better at anything it’s important to do consistent and conscious practice into doing that activity, or at least that’s what I’ve learned from psychology/sociology type books like Mindset or Outliers. I’ve also seen that investing in how you work with people is more valuable than learning how you invest in almost anything else (obviously depending on your goals, but I don’t see many goals in which you will not frequently interact with other people). But how do you practice working with people on a regular basis? Apparently the benefits of practicing often begin to finish after about 3 hours a day. But imagine, three hours per day working on how you deal with people? Either you have the worlds most patient friends or you are about the most friendly person in the world to talk that much to strangers). So for the majority of us there’s not always someone to practice with, and even then the risk can be very high if you practice the wrong thing with the wrong person. That means that for the majority of us the best way to work on working with people is other forms of media profiting on the advice of others who have already done so. For me this means reading regularly on the topic, and I’ve done this a fair amount with my recent reading lists, but until now the intimidating 48 Laws of Power had always eluded me. Firstly is the problem that it is concerned with Power only. I think life revolves around a lot more than just power, yet the older I get I see that personal freedom is a huge factor in the happiness in our lives, and personal freedom is very much linked with at least a minimum attention of power. Secondly, it’s a really long book…
What I learned
The 48 Laws is written in a special way. It is not a book with a story you can follow, but instead 48 chapters that are essentially independent. Each one includes historical stories of famous individuals that “observed” or “transgressed” these laws and the consequences resulting from that action with additional interpretation and explication of how the law may apply to modern times. Noting that modern means the end of the 20th century (I’d be very interested to see if the author thought to update the book for more recent times).
While reading this book I flipped back and forth between two thoughts almost constantly. First was that several of the lessons appeared to be true and the actions suggested justified, and the second was that the lesson may be true, but the person performing these actions would not be a good person. It seemed that Greene wrote with the sole objective of Power as an ends and any means would be justified. At the beginning of the read this is very uncomfortable. I kept thinking to myself “I’d never stoop to that level” as the author suggested throwing friends under the bus as scapegoats or taking credit for the work of others whenever possible. Yet time and again, there were gems of wisdom even in some of the worst laws.
At the same time some of the laws and suggestions were extremely benign and good spirited, suggesting many changes to attitude that would easily be associated with being a good person and a person of power that is respected as one of the good guys.
Each piece of advice that I found interesting I began to classify into one of two categories. The practical yet malevolent laws I categorised as Machiavellian (classic enough) and the well intended and optimistic laws I categorised as Carnegie Laws in honor of How to Win Friends and Influence People and its author Dale Carnegie. So below are my two lists in no particular order that stuck in my head as I read this.
Machiavellian Laws or Points
“They key to power, then is the ability to judge who is best able to further your interests in all situations.” Knowing who to appeal to and to serve is the most important aspect of furthering your goals, all the other rules are secondary because if you spend all your time helping others who cannot help you, your objectives won’t proceed in any case.
Do not rely on instinct, search for concrete knowledge. Whether it is to support your own causes or to confront those of someone else, it is important to have facts behind your arguments, be sure to collect these from a variety of sources.
The rules of court life of medieval times are still alive and well, break them at your own peril.
“Complete free expression is a social impossibility.” It can be more important to adapt to achieve your goals than to have ironclad values. Think what you want, but there are few instances when public disagreement will help you.
Too much innovation is traumatic and will lead to revolt. Preach for change, but only make changes slowly.
Carnegie Laws or Points
“Demonstrate do not explicate.” Do not try to convince people with words, do it with actions. Actions speak louder than words (common saying of course), but specifically in stating that very few people will ever be convinced of anything through words, or to never argue with anything, something that Carnegie would thoroughly agree with.
Surrounding yourself with others who are happy, productive, or otherwise good for our betterment since we are proven to become more and more like those around us.
“Our tendency to doubt…is broken down when we join a group.” To make people more agreeable, work in groups and be a part of as many groups as you can be.
“Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid.” Being confident, outspoken, and friendly will serve you significantly better than being too reserved. You may make more mistakes, but you’ll progress more quickly. Just when those mistakes are made it is important to address the failures immediately.
“A steady continuous effort is irresistible.” As with almost anything, slow continuous improvement is the best way to improve anything. Never expect instant results, just constantly work towards your goals little by little.
Always aim high, but always have an end goal in mind. Once you achieve the end goal, stop.
What I didn’t like
There were two major problems I had with this book. The first being that the book is so clearly written for a man’s perspective, and the second being any portion of the book discussing love.
There is no doubt in my mind that this book was written by a man, for a male audience. For starters, about 95% of the anecdotes shared focus on male central characters. Sure, historically men have been more well documented, so when looking at fields like ancient China, or Greece it is easier to find male characters than female ones, yet the book was written in 1998, and many of the stories focus on situations happening in the 20th century. By this time it would be absolutely possible to include several examples of powerful and influential women, yet the author continued to focus almost exclusively on male personalities. Moreover, the book is a persuasive work, insisting that the reader should behave in a certain way, yet all the stories about love focus on capturing women’s attention and never a man’s. Each superior described is always described as a man, and entire laws focus on father son relationships. For a book written in my life-time it is disappointing to see how far from modern standards it already is.
Going back to the subject of love, there were several sections describing how to keep your lover engaged in your relationship, and my god were they bad. Greene repeatedly represented the females of history as shallow women searching for games and mystery and suggested that the second a man tells a woman how he really feels about her that she will lose all interest in him. Note to self to see if Greene has had successful relationships using this philosophy.
Questions I asked
Did Greene write the laws after finding all of his stories, or did he find stories to support his laws?
When does strategic thinking, as presented in this book, become manipulation? Can manipulation be justified by the end result?
Have we progressed that much in our lifetime for feminism?
My Favorite Quote
“In the game of power, you are surrounded by people who have absolutely no reason to help you unless it is in their interest to do so.”
Robert Greene
Books I liked like this one
How to Win Friends and Influence People : Dale Carnegie (for similar friendly lessons on human behavior)
The Prince : Niccolò Machiavelli (for similar malevolent lessons on human behavior)
Book Reviews for Mom 